Chivalry is definitely dead.

The line I always stand in was rather long when I got to it this evening. I took my place behind a lady who was kinda standing off to the side, but I knew she was in line. I think she was trying to make it easier for the people getting off the escalator to begin their walk through the station.

The next train was Dublin/Pleasanton, so I started getting my iPod out of my bag so I could listen to it while waiting. I was untangling the earbud wires when the train arrived, and I started moving up and to the side like all the other people who weren't getting on the train including the lady in front of me.

I was still messing with the wires when everyone was getting back in line. Next thing I know, some man that was in the line parallel to my line was in my place. I stood and stared at him while thinking this can't be happening. He line jumped! He was totally acting like he was behind the lady from the beginning. I guess he got frustrated with how his line was moving, and thought my line was better, so he moved right in.

I had two obvious options: say something or continue to mill off to the side until I gave up and stood behind him. For the first time in my 6 years of BART riding, I decided I wasn't going to put up with a stupid person doing something stupid and assuming everyone else will just let him/her do it because he/she doesn't care. I got fed up.

"Excuse me," I said in a very polite manner (and this is true, I don't care what anyone says who knows me), "I was behind her."

So I'll tell you what I expected to happen. I expected some sort of acknowledgement if not an apology for being so thoughtless. Then I could say no problem, it happens and be on my merry line standing way.

But no. Instead, I got completely ignored. I became invisible girl again. Well, only to the man because when I continued to stare at him thinking, now what do I do? the lady in front of me moved up to create space for me to get back in line. Right on, lady! Fight the power! Death to all men who don't care about us gals!

"Oh!" I said. "Thank you."

The lady acknowledged my situation in slight disgust (at the man, not me, of course).

I moved back in line when the man said, "Oh my god! I can't believe this!!"

Can't believe what? That I and this lady do not think that you're special and deserve to cut in front of anyone at anytime? Perhaps you should have cut in front of the man in the other line and see what would have happened. Or better yet, why don't you just move to the front because you must be one of them special people I've always wrote about.

I turned around and said to him, "You must not take BART a lot, do you?"

Snappy retort to his "oh my god," if I do say so for myself. I've wanted to say that to someone at some point before my BART days were over.

Little did I know this man hated women.

"Are you always a cunt?" he asked me.

Whhhaaaa-aaaa-tttt? What did he just say? Woah, nelly, where was all this hostility coming from? I don't even get using that word to put someone down. It's the stupidest word anyone, especially a man, could use. Since times have changed so much, the word "cunt" is in the dictionary, and I quote:

"1 usually obscene : the female pudenda; also : coitus with a woman 2 usually disparaging and obscene: woman"

So let's see, I'm obscene? Or I have sex with a woman? I'm an obscene woman who has sex with other woman? Can I start with Angelina Jolie? I think she's purty.

The absurdity of him saying this to me was overwhelming. It's such a stupid word. I mean, come on, ask if I'm a strong person who doesn't put up with line jumpers or someone who can spot an idiot from a line away. And, so, by my power of deductions, he was a stupid man.

"Cunt, huh?" I said while smiling.

"Yeah!" he responded.

"Wow. Such a big word for a big man."

I started to turn around, but then turned back and finalized our little conversation with, "You must have a mother."

I wanted to say, You must have a wife, daughter then mother, but I was pretty sure he was gay based on how he talked. He had a little tiny lisp. Could mean nothing or it could mean everything.

I think most women hate the word "cunt," so if I am correct that he is gay, then he's got to have a few women friends who have told him women hate that word. Because I'll be damned if any man who is married or loves a women in that way would say that out loud in front of her because she would vehemently tell him to stop saying that.

At least, that's what I do when my husband calls women that.

When I turned back around, the lady in front of me was giving the man dirty looks and telling me slightly to stop, he's not worth the time. No, he's not, but he does make a fine blog story, doesn't he? I gotta make it worthwhile.

When I got to Fremont, I called my husband to inform him that I am a cunt, in case he didn't know.

He said, "What happened?" (I heard a silently thought "now" at the end of that question.)

So I told him what happened, and he insisted that I wasn't a cunt and that the man was stupid.

I told him, "So now you won't ever use that word anymore when you're mad at some lady driving, will you?"

He said, "No."

I think I made many points today. Gotta fight the power!